maxiewawa

The Chinese version of the idiom “one size fits all” is 一刀切 or literally “to cut with one knife”. I like the Chinese better. “One size fits all” is rarely used to describe a policy, or technique in a positive light, and the Chinese way gets this across.

I came across a Chinese expression the other day. It goes like this:

一分钱一分货

You might translate it like this:

You get one cent’s worth if you pay one cent.

It’s saying that if you pay very little for something, its quality isn’t very good. An equivalent expression in English:

You get what you pay for.

But I prefer the much more colourful:

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

An extremely low amount of money is often referred to as “peanuts”, which is where we get this expression. Or perhaps the other way around, I’m not sure.